and mitt romney has more appearances there today. abc's karen travers is joining us this morning with more on this very close race. good morning, karen. >> reporter: good morning, rob. good morning, sunny. good luck trying to make sense of any polls over the last couple days. one thing is clear this race has gotten tighter. mitt romney was back in iowa for the first time in nearly a month. >> iowa is going to help elect me the next president of the united states. >> reporter: flying over his event this sign mocking him for the comments about big bird at last week's debate. the obama campaign is also trying to keep that in the news with this new ad. >> mitt romney taking on our enemies no matter where they nest. >> reporter: republicans say the president's campaign is showing signs of desperation. >> these are tough times. with real serious, use. so you have to scratch your head when the president spend the last week talking about saving big bird. >> election day, weeks away, getting a solid read on where the race stand is not easy. a